A visual, interactive, web-based tool is a big part of the AquaSavvy project. This tool shows the different water flows that exist in an urban context, supported by local community-driven data platforms. This tool is built by bringing people and technology together, through systems-of-systems data engineering, urban resource flows and participatory planning.
We want the whole world to use this tool, and see how it works for what everyone needs when they are not in an assisted setting. One way of reaching out is through a competition – that’s probably not the right word, because we want everyone to win, but we haven’t found another word for it yet.
The purpose of the competition is two-fold. Firstly it exists to advertise and test the use, and usefulness of the tool in a global setting. For this reason the competition is launched very early, while the tool barely exists. Contributing to the building of the tool, forking it and playing with the code, and giving feedback about the needs of the wider community, is part of the competition too!
Secondly, the competition is the gateway to build a global community of similar-minded people, and using the digitally-facilitated transnational connections to build support for vulnerable communities too.
Entry types: Art, code, whatever
Landscape art, code implementations, performance art, civic activism, pull requests (PRs) on github, digital, physical, virtual worlds, documentation, contributing datasets … all of these are welcome. This is a bottom-up approach, the competition itself is also developed and driven by the community – get in touch! info@aquasavvy.eu
We have a few ideas for categories:
Category 1: Represent nature actors: This category asks participants to represent other-than-human actors like biodiversity, ecosystem components, through any form of representation: different data approaches, knowledge graphs, infographics, literature, visualisation in any format; VR, analog or digital art, board game, computer game etc
Category 2: Time-travel: Imagining futures. Any sort of future, dystopian, utopian, realistic, steam punk, ecopunk … This category tests If the tool has the capacity to illustrate the future – for people to play with.
Technical categories:
Category T1: Implementing IPSME. Build integrations, bridging scientific databases between different disciplines, and more innovatively bridge scientific databases and game platforms, allowing the incorporation of physical world elements into virtual environments.
Category T2: RDF local data. Examples illustrating autonomy over collected data, showing data reuse and sharing with elsewhere.
Category T3: Contributing to data sources, identify relevant knowledge infrastructures
What about AI?
We will not limit the use of AI, but we also need to have a broader conversation about AI. So let’s figure it out together.
Use the competition for your own purposes
Host it where you want, organise it for what you want, skin the tool how you want, get your own sponsors, do whatever. Find your people.
Hosted in Bursa
As part of the applied research component of this project, the competition will have a particular focus on our case study areas; Orø island in Denmark, and the Nilüfer stream in Bursa, Türkiye. Further we will focus on virtual case studies – exploring the online-first (or online-only) potential of the tool in Portugal, Sweden and South Africa. These case study areas will have their own categories and awards, and will be hosted and celebrated as the “AquaSavvy Urban Landscape Art & Design Competition” at the BCube incubation hub in Bursa. You are welcome to add your country and/or your initiatives to this focus as well, bearing in mind it will have a slightly different structure and oversight – get in touch! info@aquasavvy.eu
Timeline
Official opening of competition: March 2026 (pending official start of the project)
Celebration event: expected October 2028.
Sponsors
We will be reaching out to industry and wider stakeholders for small prizes, cash or in-kind, and work with these stakeholders to shape what they would want from this. Rather than only focusing on “1st, 2nd, 3rd” prizes in uninspired constrained categories, we want to be more creative, and build long-lasting relationships. We’re still figuring this out. Got ideas or want to be a sponsor? Get in touch! info@aquasavvy.eu